Month: February 2015

I’m in New York!

It’s really cold!

I’m staying at the Broadway Plaza Hotel on 27th and Broadway. After I got here and dropped my bags, I called Abi, then went out for a walk. I’m trying to stay up until around 21:00, to try and force my system into the right time zone. (Abi wisely suggested I bring one of her custom-made USB blue light boxes with her, which I’ll use tomorrow morning.)

I walked North to 32nd Street, and stopped in at JHU Comics, where I picked up volume 4 of Saga, volume 8 of Ex Machina (not new – I’m still catching up on it), and volume 1 of Rat Queens.

Being on a low-FODMAP diet I know I’m going to regret this, but I stopped off for a slice of pizza at Empire Pizza on 5th Ave on my way South again. It was cold, I was hungry, I was weak. It was really good.

Perhaps inadvisably given the cold and my illness-ridden state, I walked down to Union Square then looped back to the hotel. I couldn’t feel my face by the time I got back. Fortunately the hotel supplies hot water, and I brought my own supply of lemsip. AND IT’S WARM IN THE ROOM. Unlike many hotels in Edinburgh, this one reckons that heating is not an optional extra in the middle of winter.

Given that this was the blow-out last night of the European tour for their album called Trouble in Paradise, if La Roux don’t release a live recording of this show and call it “Trouble in Paradiso”, they are seriously missing a trick. I’m hopeful for this because after the opening act (Meanwhile) their support crew spent a full hour working on the most elaborate sound check I’ve ever seen at Paradiso.

It was worth the wait. The band walked on dressed in sharp suits (the drummer even sporting a tidy pocket square), looking cool as cucumbers, and proceeded to play an immaculate set. Tight and precise, but not clinical. On the opening lines of “Let Me Down Gently” I thought Elly Jackson’s voice cracked a bit, but she soon warmed up and sounded amazing for the rest of the gig. She reminded me of 1980s-era Bowie with her side-to-side stepping dance moves and casual flips of her striped jacket. She projected a cool and confident, somewhat haughty poise to match the look, but every now and then she would let a shy, sweet smile break through. It was adorable.

Set list:

1. Let Me Down Gently
2. Fascination
3. Kiss And Not Tell
4. In For The Kill
5. Sexotheque
6. Cruel Sexuality
7. I’m Not Your Toy
8. Shame Shame Shame (cover of Shirley & Co.)
9. Tropical Chancer
10. Uptight Downtown
11. Colourless Colour
12. Silent Partner (Already a 7-minute romp on the album, they turned this into a 10-minute drum-laden extravaganza, with the perfectly groomed drummer going absolutely mental, and Elly triggering the siren sounds on a pair of extra pads mid-stage. A fantastic finale.)

13. Tigerlily
14. Bulletproof